I was in high school when the movie Payback came out. I watched it and immediately felt a connection with the main character, Porter, played by Mel Gibson. Sure, he was a bad guy, but the point of the movie was not that he was bad; it was that he wanted what was fair. It didn’t matter to me that the money was stolen, the point was that he deserved to get his cut. In any case, no other movie […]
Surreal Nightmares and Literary Convergence: A Review of Matthew Revert’s “Human Trees”
Nothing compares to the satisfaction of seeing an author achieve exactly what you thought them capable of after reading their first couple of books. Matthew Revert, perhaps the most influential and sought-after graphic designer in indie publishing, is also one of the most exciting voices in the space where surreal, literary, and plain weird fiction meet. With the release of Human Trees, his latest novel, that position has somewhat morphed into something new. After reading the book, it becomes obvious […]
A Fresh Take on Online Life, Turned Uncanny: Benjamin Percy’s “The Dark Net” Reviewed
Benjamin Percy’s The Dark Net is a floating signifier obsessed not only with never being nailed down but also with trying to cross-pollinate as many genres and subgenres as possible. At once a mystery narrative, a hardcore horror novel, a science fiction book, and a tale that deconstructs Portland while showing readers the absolute omnipresence of the internet in countries that are on the lucky side of the digital divide, this is the kind of novel that would make almost […]
An Uncanny Adventure of Family and Loss: Jeremy Robert Johnson’s “In the River” Reviewed
With every new book of his, I find myself struggling to come up with new ways of praising Jeremy Robert Johnson. I do it in part because repetitiveness strikes me as lazy, but also because every book of his is wildly different from the previous one. As I’ve mentioned before (see how hard it is to keep it fresh?), Johnson is like Brian Evenson or Stephen Graham Jones in the sense that you never know what you’re going to get […]
Love, Sacrifice, and Viscera: A Review of Jordan Harper’s “She Rides Shotgun”
In some cases, the ability to break away from the standard review becomes crucial in order to effectively convey how outstanding a work of fiction is. In the case of Jordan Harper’s She Rides Shotgun, I’ll skip the introduction and allow the writing to do the talking:
Shifting Identities and Horrors in the Arctic: A Review of Bracken MacLeod’s “Stranded”
When discussing authors who possess the ability to seamlessly stitch together elements drawn from a plethora of genres to create something refreshing and new, Lauren Beukes, Brian Evenson, and Stephen Graham Jones quickly come to mind. Now, Bracken MacLeod has joined that list of very talented literary chameleons with his latest novel, Stranded, which pulls a variety of elements from adventure and survival narratives, horror, science fiction, and mystery to construct a bizarre and profound story about identity and the […]
Fear and Loathing on the Road to Santa Fe
You get in the car at 4:45am and start driving to Santa Fe because sometimes the only place you want to be is away and Santa Fe is as good a place as any to do just that. The night is quiet. It’s Thursday and only the hardcore kids are out and the streets are dark and Austin seems to be sleeping.
When Familial and Cinematic Histories Meet: A Review of Simon Roy’s “Kubrick Red”
Few books walk the space inhabited by Simon Roy’s Kubrick Red. At once obsessive, dark, philosophical, academic, and touching, Kubrick Red is a bizarre memoir that manages to deconstruct and celebrate Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining while laying out the hardest moments of Roy’s life as well as the continuing impact the film has had in his life. The result is a book that jumps from childhood memories to scene analyses to hybrid/experimental literary territory to coping with the loss of […]